sperm donor half-sibs, got many?

News rules may be needed because sperm banks may be selling lots of sperm from "popular donors". I've discussed this in an ethics class and I'm glad it is in the public view now. I was happy to learn that the families can track the other sibs on a donor registry. Of course there's the old story of the girl who wasn't allowed, by her father, to date a certain boy (because he was her father's son) and when her mother was consulted the girl was assured that Father wasn't her dad anyway! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/he...onor.html?_r=3

Great article. Definately food for thought! I think a lot of people just assume that only a few kids will come from one donor. It really is quite scary to think of the possible consequences caused by one donor being able to populate a small school!

Sep 7, '11

I took a class with a young woman who was tring to find out who her biological father was. She was told only that he had been a medical student when he was paid to donate sperm.
She wrote, called, and visited physicians who were the age he would have been at the time.

It was difficult for her.

Sep 7, '11

It's defiantly an ethical dilemma. I watched a show where they were interviewing adults who had been trying to find their biological fathers where the fathers had been sperm donors. It's not impossible and one girl had found the father after much effort.

The psychological pull to know who you are, where you come from is so strong. I never knew my biological father and until I was 37 looked for him without success. Then my brother who never had any interest in finding him bumped into what is now our half sister at an airport.

They both had the same name and the details are long but they found out they had the same father. Turns out after my father divorced my mother he went and got married and had 4 other children. He is dead and I never got to ask him why he never wanted to know his first children.

I can't imagine trying to find someone who had been a sperm donor as a father. I hope these men and the want-to-be moms first try to realize what they are doing and the ramifications that will happen once the child finds out the truth. Ultimately the majority of the kids will want to know who their biological fathers are.

Sep 7, '11

It is hard to not know where you come from, but this story is much more than that.

I heard it on the news the am and could not believe it! The health and psychological ramifications from this reckless form of 'medicine' is unethical. How many people are going to marry a half sister or cousin because of these agencies' actions? A sperm donor should get 1 -2 donations and that is it. Yuck!!!

Sep 7, '11

Odd that this should come up! I just finished reading a murder mystery with this very subject at the base of the plot: Some Dr. had put himself through medical school with multiple sperm donations. Of course the plot twist wasn't about marrying someone you didn't know was a half-sib, it was much more dastardly. But, really, a couple dozen half-sibs running around within the same geographical area? Sounds like trouble to me!

Sep 7, '11

Many sperm banks offer the option to pick a donor who will not mind being contacted when/ if the child wants to meet them. Also, many have rles in place as far as how many pregnancies a donor can produce.

It's defiantly an ethical dilemma. I watched a show where they were interviewing adults who had been trying to find their biological fathers where the fathers had been sperm donors. It's not impossible and one girl had found the father after much effort.

The psychological pull to know who you are, where you come from is so strong. I never knew my biological father and until I was 37 looked for him without success. Then my brother who never had any interest in finding him bumped into what is now our half sister at an airport.

They both had the same name and the details are long but they found out they had the same father. Turns out after my father divorced my mother he went and got married and had 4 other children. He is dead and I never got to ask him why he never wanted to know his first children.

I can't imagine trying to find someone who had been a sperm donor as a father. I hope these men and the want-to-be moms first try to realize what they are doing and the ramifications that will happen once the child finds out the truth. Ultimately the majority of the kids will want to know who their biological fathers are.

Personally have long been against this modern trend of judges and or others turning a birth certificate into some sort of PC document listing all and sundry. A birth record is just that, a statement of some simple facts and there isn't a need for several "fathers" and "mothers" to be listed.

It is easier to trace a pure breed farm animal or dog these days than sort out genetic history of some children.

Sperm from US males, in particular white/European, tall/healthy and good looking types is actually exported all over the world for insemination. And we're not speaking of a cottage industry either, but one that brings in quite allot money due to demand. Therefore an American could travel anywhere in the world such as Asia, the UK etc and sleep or worse marry their own sister or brother.

American markets are big for sperm donors for the same reasons as invitro and surrogacy. Single women, single men, in fertile couples, gay or straight and so forth who face obstacles in their own country seek out states with lax and or liberal laws on reproductive matters such as CA.

Sep 8, '11

"ms. kramer, the registry's founder, said that one sperm donor on her site learned that he had 70 children. he now keeps track of them all on an excel spreadsheet. "every once in a while he gets a new kid or [color=#004276]twins," she said. "it's overwhelming, and not what he signed up for. he was promised low numbers of children."

to me, that means that the donor has made many donations. since not every insemination will result in a live birth. taking into account that some of the inseminations will result in multiple live births, the donor that has 70+ children must have made multiple donations.

so, imho, how is this unexpected to the donor?

Sep 8, '11

To use one of my mother's expresions:

YE GODS AND LITTLE CATFISHES!!!!!

Sep 9, '11

Is this the "brave new world'? Talk about unintended consequences!

Sep 9, '11

I don't think that most donors are aware of how many possible pregnancies are possible from one donation. And I believe that it was totally unethical for the agencies to use one donor for more that 3-5 pregnancies.

This is very sad in so many ways.

Sep 9, '11

There are men out there with multiple children. 10+ who don't know of some of them without ever having been sperm donors.... plenty of people don't know who his/her father is. I know a number of people who found out later in life that they had multiple half sibilings. sometimes the fathers knew, other times it was a suprise to them as well.